Mo_oon

Okay dont quote me on that cause I’m not sure if he did say that or not but he has said some of these words

Anyways I still remember when I first heard the news’s of this drama and coming back once and a while to check on any updates then the excitement of hearing it started filming then it wrapped up filming then impatiently waiting for the airing date (excuse me I’m just getting emotional)

Okay onto the real review
This drama itself is quite slow pace and does have triggering scenes involving SA (I cannot remember all episodes that include SA scenes but those I can remember is ep 25,27,28 maybe there is some in the beginning episodes as well)

if you are a person that is rather impatient I would not recommend this drama but like bai jing ting said in a interview recently for this drama “I hope they give it a chance” cause in the end everything is quite subjective
This drama itself is quite different from hidden love despite having the sang siblings as the main love interest both of their stories are drastically different so please don’t compare them

I enjoyed this drama as someone who has read the manhua but it does have its own flaws such as the arc from ep 24-26 I understand why they did that over the novel version of what was supposed to happen but there is quite some plot holes in that arc
Such as how yifan friends found her so easily in such a big city tho they probably had a ruff idea of where she was

It had its own comedic aspects as well which was nice nonetheless I wish they could’ve handled the second storyline better as there really wasn’t much balance between the main storyline and the 2nd one and sometimes it felt random in certain episodes
I wish they could’ve showed us more of Qiao qiao side of feelings when it came for hers towards haoan
The 2nd lead mu cheng yun was really annoying, it seems he doesn’t have this much of a annoying role in the novel but it looks like they really dialed him up for more dramatic effect

Nonetheless it had many amazing aspects that appreciated them for and it showed just how much effort the director,writer and crew did
The cinematography was beautiful, we were able to see so many beautiful done scenes that added depth in the episode itself
I appreciate how they added flashbacks to their younger days back in highschool in majority of episodes because it really adds more depth to our characters relationships and meanings to some action as well
I don’t know how it was supposed to go in the novel despite not really hearing good things
But I like the direction they took as the fan of the manhua I’m happy
I also appreciate how in a majority of the episodes they add sang yan pov at the end cause we get to see a bit of how he felt or what he did during that episode
Also how they gave us one last scene after a “this story is not over yet” like a bonus scene lol

The soundtrack I loved it and it seems I won’t stop listening cause it’s ending today the drama and I’m too emotional attached to it
A lot of the songs and lyrics fit the drama very well which I’m glad
I used to skip the openings but I learned to appreciate it more and more plus bai jing ting said in the interview for this drama something about how it’s unskippable or something similar but I agree with him

On the acting both leads did such a good job so did the supporting characters and the villain
To me bai jing ting did a great job at portraying sang yan it’s as if I saw him come to life from the story honestly and his subtle acting through his eyes in important scenes such as ep 27
Zhang ruonan did a great job as well portraying wen yifan especially the dead eyes in a way to make us see how Wen yifan really live in a way but just like BJT it’s as if I saw wen yifan come to life despite yifan being described more as a cold beauty and zhang ruonan having more cuter features she did a very nice job
The actors who played her family did a nice job as well cause they made me hate their characters so much

I love this story because we get to see two characters who are flawed in their own ways, learn and grow from the past selves so I hope you give this drama a chance than just listening to reviews and decide for yourself if you like it or not

This part is more of my own opinions/view on both Sang Yan and Wen yifan
So I hope that if you ever struggle to understand them this could help offer you a new perspective

The comment section on MDL (here) has been quite hell for the past few days because of certain opinion that has resurfaced many times to the point it’s scary how similar they are

For Wen Yifan it’s clear since the beginning that the girl has issues and pain
She was abandoned by her own mother, got SA by her aunt’s little brother(he’s a grown middle aged man) , got told to hide this SA by her mom and aunt and that it’s shameful and at her previous work place she got harassed
However I have seen the same argument come up in a lot of people’s opinion
“I understand her pain but why is she so selfish and not one ounce intelligent enough like she was described or she’s a reporter”
It makes me wonder did you really understand her? Or that she just went through pain and trauma?
It’s clear to me that WYF decided to lock that part away in hopes that it will be forgotten
and has been surviving everyday trying her best to be away and afar from her own family who caused her pain
Ultimately when her perpetrator showed again and hurt Sang yan bar’s reputation she spiraled after the threats her perpetrator made and now hurting her lover then went to threaten them hoping that this could be the end but it wasn’t and she ran because she only knows how to do that and even in these moments where you’ve spiraled it’s hard to think “rational” like someone said
I myself see a lot of me in wen yifan that’s why I love her as character and I know what it’s like to spiral and honestly during those times I was more overwhelmed by emotion then able to think smart or rational

I saw a lot say they don’t prefer this coward and weak FL and wish she stood up and stop being a weakling
Nevertheless haven’t we all been a coward in our life? Courage isn’t something you earn the moment you’re born
The reason why she ran away was after all those years of not confronting her trauma ultimately led to this situation we saw in ep 23-24
It’s not that she doesn’t trust Sang Yan and her coworkers or friends, it’s that she’s too scared she’ll be the reason why they get hurt whether reputation or physically even
During that arc of ep 24-6 I don’t think she was healing but took the time to find her courage and properly process the situation also to give herself time to think
Dont we all sometimes take a walk to clear our minds? In a way this is what I mean and she was planning to return after that long walk so she wasn’t planning to live there hiding

Some people forget that legal action or police reports always need evidence or her perpetrator can get out of it easily then
So I don’t understand why call her dumb when you’re dumb of not thinking that
Seeking help isn’t always easy especially someone like wen yifan who got abandoned and no one bothered to care about she thinks, trust issues are there but also who’s to say they would believe her? In our modern day, victims get more scrutiny than the perpetrators
Isn’t that ironic? Instead of asking if she was okay, it’s more she was the one who seduced him by her looks or provocative clothes in response

She herself has acknowledged that she hurt Sang yan with her words back in beiyu and how the moment she chose to run she knew and left it in her vague letter that she doesn’t deserve to ask for sangyan forgiveness

Not everyone is gonna react the way you want them to, she did her best as an adult to stand up for herself despite no one being there, she got distant and cold cause that was the only way to protect herself from anymore pain
After all this pain, I admire how strong she is for still even living and breathing and got herself a career

She herself is a flawed character that’s what makes me love her more, I relate to what she went through despite not going through the same pain. She herself is a complex character that’s not many understand after all they say “you should walk a mile in someone’s shoes before you judge them” and I guess seeing so many not understanding her means you probably lived a better life then her which you should be very thankful for & dont take it for granted
She is flawed but aren’t we all? So is the Justice system, we get to see her grow even tho the journey might be slow as hell for many but love can’t heal wounds such as trauma
Somehow we get to see a different side of a story that not many has seen in real life or fiction

Sang yan
many have complained about how this guy is too unrealistic and a SIMP
But pray to god we get a guy who is emotionally intelligent, chose to understand someone
And knows how to take care himself and devoted/loyal, he gets labelled as a doormat
These individuals can’t help but make their comment come off as rude and hateful
I didn’t see people complain about other green flag guys who are “simps” instead they get praised for that, example sungjae from lovely runner or minhyuk from strong women do bong soon

However I have seen majority a dissatisfied with how it seems yifan barely makes much effort as he does (we do see she cares like in ep 28 or how she bothered to cook for him)
She does care it just that not all of us are quite expressive in words or actions and I know well enough that if this is reversed y’all would be slamming the guy like no tomorrow

The thing about him is that since reuniting with her, he never had hopes the she would reciprocate his feelings. After all the young him that separated with her didn’t knew of her pain and struggles and believed what people said around him
To quote what user (u10146071) said in the comment “And he buys into the narrative that then everyone in school would have: oh, SY played himself. That pretty admired girl was never serious about him. How embarrassing.”

In ep 28 we see him say that lowering his pride means nothing for him now especially if it can put her perpetrator behind bars because the young him never understood why she hurt him with those words that day in beiyu until he learned of her past by himself and through her own words. He learned that he was immature and foolish to have had those thoughts about her with his broken pride

He was frustrated with her decisions especially that in ep 24 because then he didn’t understand why but still chose to give her space well he did search for her like a maniac so one can say he maybe lost his mind

Nonetheless he told her how his world crumbled and how sorry he was for his judgments about her back then

The sang siblings love surely is selfless they both don’t expect anything back from their lover but some individuals complain on “his behalf” saying this dynamic is bad
Let’s be honest sang yan himself never expected anything back from WYF, he just hoped that she lives a better life and one she deserves above all he just wanted to make sure she lived a good life and a happy one and he would have been satisfied

He simply saw what life she lived and decided to stay to help her and make sure she knows that he is there for her, that she isn’t alone

So I hope this could’ve offered you a different perspective on these two characters and what I thought of them and If you have made it this far omg congrats I typed a lot